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Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Work Smarter (Life Hacks)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

Another week! Another Wednesday! Another opportunity to share some wisdom with you dear readers! Today’s topic – how YOU can make art and also balance the other areas of your life simultaneously!

Think about it for a minute, what’s the most fascinating subject in this life to dedicate years of your life studying? The answer is none other than yourself, dear reader(s)!

I know it sounds selfish, but is there really a better use of your time then working on yourself? Let’s be serious, we all do need to ask the question – what’s in it for me? If you can’t answer that, you can’t begin to contribute in this world.

Okay, with that aside, I don’t truly have a life-changing list of top 10 ways to improve yourself, make life easier and get your art out there (it’s a lifelong commitment), but I definitely do have a resource to get you started and at the very least start working on basic areas of your life that are universal and can be refined to your specific purpose.

Lists or no, I honestly think the reasons are innumerable for why you should streamline your internal process, so timotheories came up with a curated strategy of things we all need to work on in order get our rear in gear, and remove that fear!

First lets get in the right mindset.

You can’t outsource being CEO of your own life.

– Leo Gura, Actualized.org

No one knows your life purpose better than you, and no one is going to hold you up and guide you directly towards your goals, but if you focus on these habits below, you’ll realize that life becomes just a bit easier, and you have more energy for the things important to you.

I visited a number of sources in order to come up with this list – from Inc., to Readers Digest, WikiHow, Buzzfeed, a blog called BufferSocial, Time, and finally Life Hack.

So what did I determine from the swath of tips?

 

Here are my top 10 skills to invest in, in no particular order.
  1. Time management – Improve your time management skills by looking at your results regularly to see if you are on track or wasting time – Set up your calendar and having dedicated concentration time on specific tasks. Through time management systems, and recognizing that there is a difference between being quick versus in a hurry, you’ll improve here for sure.
  2. Learning to love learning – You need to learn new things in order to keep up with the fast pace of digital tech. That means using keyboard shortcuts, improving your typing speed, and your reading speed, for starters. If you can figure out MACROS on your spreadsheets you’ll be surprised how much automation you can get out of menial tasks.
  3. Communication is key – In a time when texting, email, and social media are the new favourites, try to use the phone more often. It saves on countless back and forth. And speaking of back and forth, be concise in your emails. Respond to calls and emails as quickly as you can, and when you can’t do that, set up a regular time to respond to your contacts.
  4. Multi-task misery – Learn to multi-task the right way, by cutting it out of your life. If you keep a million tabs open on your browser, you’re gonna have a bad time. Please remove distractions while you work and spend time with others. Turn off your phone, close your tablet, and focus on the task at hand.
  5. To-Do list – The ever popular to-do list is perfect for organizing your day into bite-size chunks. Make a daily one to automate certain processes, and really focus on the unique difficult tasks first. As the saying goes, eat that frog. If you want even more reinforcements, create a “to-don’t” list, of things you’ll never do, and stick to it!
  6. Attitude is everything – Expect failure and fight paranoia in life – Failure is common when you are exploring. But not failing is never okay. Keep positive and realize it won’t always be this bad, but it won’t stay easy either. If you ask lots of questions, aren’t afraid to do menial work, and spend 10 minutes a day laughing out loud, when Sunday night appears, you’ll be excited for Monday.
  7. Evaluate life – Make major decisions in the morning and divvy up your day based on your productivity habits. Assess your passions at the end of each year, each month, each week, and before you go to bed. If you can do that you’ll focus and delegate out the unnecessary. Flexibility is important too, but if you get stuck try this – pretend you are away from work and/or home for a week, and you only have a few hours to accomplish your tasks.
  8. Plan to make plans – Plan regularly! Build routines to start your day AND end your day. You are going to have to organize throughout the day too, so make an outline to insure you aren’t starting from scratch over and over. Please also set deadlines for major projects by planning ahead. You’ll benefit from organizing your desk/workspace, minutes saves hours, believe me.
  9. Community of colleagues  – Please be social at work, so that you have a support base and network to lean on in your endeavours, and don’t be afraid to say no to anyone. If you can learn to do that AND under-promise while over-delivering, you’ll definitely find the time to finesse your brand pitch about you and gain some fans in the process.
  10. Health matters – Your greatest resource is you. So build good habits to help you stop working and walk away after a certain point. Working smart doesn’t mean you also work hard. Health is important and managing stress, anxiety and depression are part of it. Try a standing desk for posture and circulation, get up every 45 minutes and move around too. Finally, pick a “Sabbath” day to refresh your soul, body, and mind.

 

So there you have it, I took all of the most brilliant advice on life hacks, and summarized it even further. No easy task, but worthwhile!

And that’s all the theories I’ve got for today! Are any of you already doing some of these things? All of them? Leave questions or comments, or send me an email! Subscribe if you liked this post and want to see more.

Otherwise, come back tomorrow for some love tips or something mushy related to it, at the very least.

Tim!

Is Netflix Controlling Your Destiny? (Cross Talk Ep.1)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

OMG, OMG, OMG, OMG!

It’s here, it’s finally here! I’ve been promising something new and different for weeks now, but it’s finally here! You asked for more theories, straight from Tim himself, and I am giving you exactly what you have asked for.

This new format is going to be something special for sure.

You know how you go to your computer and you turn it on, and then you realize that not only are there files in there, but there is also a network of people and information which is at your fingertips?*

*Provided you have a home which you own, are paying off, or which you rent from a land lord. Plus a valid internet connection which you need to acquire from an internet service provider. Oh and also electricity which comes from a utilities provider.

Well, just for you dear readers, I’ve decided to put together a new monthly video series called Cross Talk with my very good friend Chris Murphy.

It’s clever you see, because we sit across from each other and talk about interesting topics related to the arts.

But who the heck is this Chris guy, and how come he is special enough to get a monthly series with you Tim?

Well, I’ve known Chris for almost 8 years and in that time I have learned a few things about him. First, he is just as invested in film, literature, and community as I am, but he is also doing it with a little more gusto. And second, he has a little bit of wisdom on me, which is always needed for the timotheories brand.

So I recruited him into the timotheories fold.

Chris is charming, challenging, and captivating to witness in action, so you are assured of a treat when you carry on a conversation with him. YouTube will probably only emulate his gusto at 60% power, so be prepared for a whirlwind of discussion, all from the comfort of home – well A home. It’s not your home we filmed this episode in, but to you local fans out there, there is always the future.

But what the heck are you going to talk about on your channel with Chris a minimum of 1x a month timotheories?

Good question, you sharp young readers! It’s all about the balance of barroom philosophy and pop culture discussion on a couch. We’ll frame our discussions around the topic of film and do this while attempting to actively avoid the typical things that experts do when they talk about film. We aren’t here to review, and we don’t really want to list off our top 10’s, but we’ll be incredibly excited to go over the under appreciated films and shower thoughts you may have had, but didn’t mull over too much.

First up is the topic of – How movie reviews and popular opinion influence your viewing habits.

I’ve included a direct link to the video for you here, but in case you don’t want to navigate away from us, here it is below too!

But that’s all the theories I’ve got for today. Whew.

I’m excited to see what you have to say about the first entry, and I hope your Sunday evening is the best one yet! See you tomorrow evening my friends with another Melodic Monday post, this time from an up-and-comer who reached out to me directly. You won’t want to miss it!

Tim!

A Time To Make Wages (Artist Fees)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

What a strange world we live in, my dear readers.

Human beings have a wonderful capacity to either create or destroy, to build up or break down, to protect or attack, to love or hate.

That statement I just made isn’t a new one, in fact, lots of us have heard it before through various channels. Probably one of the most famous comes from this passage of the Judeo-Christian Bible.

A Time for Everything

3 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2 a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;
3 a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;
4 a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
5 a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
6 a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
7 a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
8 a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

Now, don’t misconstrue my intent here.

I recognize that sharing literature from a personal belief can create all sorts of obstacles in learning and I am not interested in converting people over to that particular belief system nor am I interested in getting into debates over belief systems. I want to stick to concepts which are universal and valuable for people either interested in the arts or directly involved in them, no matter what principles guide their lives.

Back to my original theory.

We have always liked to speak in universals and this particular passage I just shared describes dichotomies very well.

It also proves that dichotomies have existed for thousands of years. I mention this primarily because we find it easier (in general) to identify concepts and life in uniform ways. I covered this exact principle in one of my very first posts which addressed common sense.

I have left this link here in case you want to read in detail, but I will share quick summary of the problem too.

The roots of common sense statements are based on our individual experiences and a combination of culture hierarchies. The phrase that something “is common sense” is problematic because common sense relies on an idea of what is “obvious.” It’s not supported by evidence or rational research based results.

So what does that have to with today’s post my friends? A lot actually.

Being an analytical type, or so I’ve been told over and over by friends and loved ones, I can appreciate the value of a deal and will spend time breaking down risks versus rewards for fun. Especially when it comes to things which I love, and which are loved by lots of other people too. (Read: albums, movies, graphic novels, and nonfiction books)

But it really bothers me when I witness people undervaluing the effort of those who create artwork, no matter what form it takes.

There are a number of reasons it bothers me, one of them being that by purchasing work for a fraction of what it is worth, that decision not only dilutes the effort of the artist but of the community overall and one of the consequences of that decision is that we don’t have as much variety available to us.

For example, a photographer who is just starting out should be charging less for their services than an established one, because quite frankly they don’t have as much experience or command of their skill, and as they test their mettle, they will be able to charge higher rates to their clientele.

But by charing significantly less to get immediate payment, the marketplace gets messed up, and attitudes crop up which are wrong, but make sense given the circumstances.

And website services like 99 designs are just as bad. Holding a “contest” where a bunch of artists all bid on a project by offering up one or two designs, means that the work that gets chosen at the end of the day isn’t even representative of the business or individual who needed services.

I can expand on this idea even more so in a future post, but if you want more of a taste take a look at this article. What do you think of that theory?

Tim!

How To Care More, Not Less (How To Douglas mailing list)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

I’m a pretty big fan of supporting local events and groups, as I hope you would know by now. But did you know that are key individuals in our communities who actually spend their hard earned “free” time, sharing the catalogue of current local events for us Edmontonians on a regular basis and a lot of us who claim to crave this information don’t even know this content exists?!?!

It’s a shame really.

What do you mean by that Tim, you ask? Well, I will gladly elaborate for you dear readers.

What I mean is that there are legitimate resources in Edmonton that will hook YOU up, with the content YOU want, in order to see the arts YOU care about.

To illustrate this exact point I am going to share with you a very specific resource I learned about over this past summer and have been using to great effect since then.

Word of mouth is an amazing thing.

And I’m going to stop you before you point out a fallacy here. Yes, technically this could qualify as a Wisdom Wednesday post, but I think you will agree with me by the end the story that it makes more way more sense as a Timely Thursday post,. I mention this because you will now know about events happening in the city of Edmonton, this weekend, before we’re done. Anyway, I learned about this resource through a friend of mine who is relatively hooked up in the arts scene himself, but admits, as I do (I probably sound like a broken record at this point, especially to close friends) that it can be incredibly difficult to figure out what to do with your evenings and weekends, in Edmonton, because of the way our organizers organize events.

Without further ado, I present to you How To Douglas.

How To Douglas is a weekly arts events newsletter put together by a gentleman by the name of Douglas Dollars (Stewart).

Before I outline in detail how this wildly useful weekly information station works, I’m going to theorize a bit on the origin of the chosen name How To Douglas, because in doing research for this post I stumbled upon some pretty funny content and I would love to interview Douglas himself to find out if I’m correctly seeing the connection.

Did you know that the Dougie is a style of hip hop dancing that was invented by a rapper of the name Lil’ Wil with the video of his 2007 hit “My Dougie”? Lil’ Wil took his now popular dance name from another rapper by the name of Doug E. Fresh, who had a signature move he used in the 1980s.

Look at the chorus from My Dougie below for more implications.

My Dougie-My Dougie-My Dougie-My Dougie
My Dougie-My Dougie-My Dougie
She Say She Like My Dougie, I’m Fresh
My Dougie, I’m Fresh-My Dougie, I’m Fresh
Yep Flyer Then A Mothafucker

I see what you did there, Douglas. You took something a signifier of cool to represent your newsletter which is about being involved in cool things, and your name is Doug. Clever girl, err I mean boy.

You should check out this link put together by Know Your Meme for more information on the Dougie.

Having shared that tidbit and had some fun, I will admit that Douglas is something of an enigma to me personally, but a number of cool people I know also know him and have him as a friend on Facebook, so I know he is real and not simply a representation of a business model. Though this article might tell you otherwise.

As I mentioned earlier, the How To Douglas newsletter comes out weekly. Every Thursday, like clockwork, it starts with a little note about how Douglas is feeling, his thoughts on the time of year, and an anecdote or two. It’s usually clever, sometimes insightful, and just a little bit silly. The content feels like a loveletter to the arts whenever I read it, which I hope is the intended effect.

And because it comes out on Thursday, the newsletter focuses on events taking place over Friday, Saturday, and Sunday which makes sense given the half life and nature of the content.

If you want to see music, film, art or anything other than a hockey game, inside of a cineplex or a restaurant, How To Douglas feels incredibly refreshing.

But don’t take my word for it. Subscribe and check it out yourself. You just might like it. Comments? Questions? Leave them!

Tim!

 

 

 

The Late Night Show (11 O’Clock Number)

Posted on by Tim Kuefler

We sit down, the lights dim, when very suddenly a charming guy in a suit jacket steps out into the spotlight, and then he heads over towards the keyboard. As he sits down, he gives pause for about 10 seconds before his posture lifts up, he grabs the microphone, and jumps into a riffed delivery of a powerful line…

It’s Friday night ladies and gentleman! I hope you’re ready! Please welcome the cast of the 11 O’Clock Number!

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An ensemble of 20-somethings (sometimes early 30’s) explode out of various areas of the stage and break into song right as the music amps up. If you haven’t been to one of their shows before, this can be a bit surprising, if you have, then it’s a comforting spectacle which precedes something which I can assure you, no one has ever seen before.

I write it this way because every show is literally unique!

If you haven’t been to the 11 O’Clock Number before, you are in luck, as the Grindstone Theatre production has just started it’s 4th season about a month ago. The show takes place every Friday, at 11 PM incidentally, at Edmonton’s very own Backstage Theatre (10330 84 Ave NW) between the early months of fall until the beginning of summer, almost without fail.

Admittedly, I’ve been fortunate enough to have experienced this improvised musical more times than I can count at this point for the previous season. And a handful of times throughout seasons 1 and 2.

Why am I telling you about this event you ask, dear readers?

Because it’s pretty damn awesome and a wonderful way to experience live theatre in Edmonton and to kick off the weekend. The fact that the show is on at 11 at night has almost assured that a cult following would develop, because in my experience, theatre doesn’t usually happen that late. At least not here. In Edmonton. Canada’s “Festival City.” WTF.

But that doesn’t tell you much about the show itself!

The Number, the pet name commonly known to it’s cast and adherents, tells a different story every Friday night. Using a group of 5-7 performers, always accompanied on keyboard and usually by Erik Mortimer or a guest, and sometimes on drums by Curtis Den Otter, is a show for the audience and by the audience.

How the Artistic Director, Byron Trevor Martin, accomplishes this, is quite demonstrative of his own ability to adapt and help drive the story forward when he participates in the shows himself.

There are a number of formats that the cast employs to set up the show – from their directors cut (with a narrator making comments and who also directs the show from behind the scenes), to the musical mixer (short form improv, followed by a condensed long form second half),  the classic format (creating a show from audience suggestions), life is a musical (an audience member tells their life story and it’s acted out), the costumed musical (the cast does a poll and comes up with a theme), or the wild card show (cards that can effect the story are given to audience members, who shout them out at will).

All of the themes are employed to effectively set up a show on the spot and by this same token it informs the performers so that they can tell a long form improvised play that features improvised songs throughout. Sometimes the songs are performed by one person, other times we’ll see a duet, and then we might see an epic performance which features all members of the cast, but whatever the inspiration, it’s always played to comedic effect.

These are funny stories.

Sometimes they are weird stories, but they are always funny stories.

I’ve even attended their classes and learned some improv skills myself. This theatre company has provided tremendous value for the local community in other ways too. They host an “Open Jam” on the last Tuesday of every month at the Holy Trinity Church (10037 – 84 Avenue) as well as co-hosting The Social Scene with Citadel Theatre every month.

Like I said, tremendous value to the local community, especially to theatre artists.

So what do you think? Are you interested in checking out The Late Night Show? Want to read more of these kinds of posts? Have some suggestions local events for timotheories to share? Hit me back!

Otherwise, I’m theoried out for the night and am gonna need a couple of days to recuperate. See you fine folks soon.

Tim!